


Moving Day

by Nugiha



Category: Little House on the Prairie (TV), Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder
Genre: 19th Century, Alternate Universe - Family, Comment Fic, Community: comment_fic, Friendship, Gen, To Read, To Rec
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-10-02 11:59:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10217537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nugiha/pseuds/Nugiha
Summary: The Ingalls move to Walnut grove where Nellie Oleson dubs them 'Country Kids' on the first day of school.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Moving Day  
> A/N: AU fic, strictly written for fun. The ages are Mary 16, Laura 15, Albert 11, James 10, Carrie and Cassandra 8, Grace 4, and Jari 15. For story purposes, the ages of the Ingalls children have been changed and Albert James and Cassandra are Charles and Caroline's biological children.   
> Fandom(s): Little House on the Prairie  
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.  
> Summary: The Ingalls move to Walnut grove where Nellie Oleson dubs them 'Country Kids' on the first day of school.   
> Rating/Warnings: R. OC, OOC, Mild to Strong Language, Violence, Adult situations/subjects, and etc.  
> Pairing(s): None  
> Cast  
> Jari Garvey...Freddie Highmore  
> Jari’s mother, Evelyn Garvey…Vera Farmiga   
> Jari’s father, Roland Garvey…Rick Springfield
> 
>  
> 
>   
> First Row: Caroline and Carrie  
> Second Row: Albert, Charles, Jari, Grace, Laura, and Mary

Walnut Grove, MN The Little House

New to Walnut Grove, Charles Ingalls and his wife Caroline Ingalls figured that it was time that they sent six of their children to school, incidentally the one room schoolhouse doubled as a Church on Sundays. Charles and Caroline had seven children, Mary Ingalls, Laura Ingalls, Carrie Ingalls, Albert Ingalls, James Ingalls, and Cassandra Ingalls who ranged in age from sixteen to four.

The schoolteacher was a blond-haired woman named Miss Eva Beadles, Miss Beadles instructed the classroom to give the Ingalls children a warm welcome a few days later before making them find seats.

Nellie Oleson insulted them with the nickname of ' _Country Kids_ ' during class that morning, the blond-haired girl was around Laura's age and known to be spoiled and _mean_.

That's not to say that school was a _completely_ bad experience for the Ingalls children, the few kids who weren't scared of Nellie befriended them and one of them was a boy around Laura's age named Jari Garvey.

The other kids at school only 'befriended' Nellie so that the spoiled girl _wouldn't_ be mean to them but not Jari, he advised Laura when she asked that the best way to deal with Nellie was to ignore her. Not that Laura took his advice, the tomboy got into _two_ fights with Nellie over the next few weeks after Visitor's Day presentations.

Homework finished that afternoon, he headed over to the Ingalls' having been invited by Laura where he played monkey in the middle in front of the Prairie with Laura and Albert.

"Kansas." said Laura in response after Jari asked where the Ingalls had moved from.

Jari smirked as he tossed the ball over the current monkey in the middle, Albert's head. "I've lived in Walnut Grove forever."

"That means you've had to deal with Nasty Nellie alot longer than we have." Albert quipped.

"I don't understand how you can see Nellie everyday without smacking the life out of her." Laura said.

Jari shrugged his shoulders, having suspected from their first fight that Laura and Nellie were bound to become arch enemies. "She doesn't bother me most of the time and that's because I'm used to her and can ignore it."

Laura nodded. "I'm going to fight Nellie again if she starts with me." she informed her younger brother and new friend.

"Nellie knows she can get to you now, which means you probably are going to fight her again."

"Don't do that Laura, you know it'll upset Ma and Pa." Albert then muttered under his breath. "Even if she has it coming. Jari, has Nellie ever been not nasty?"

"I've known Nellie a long time Albert, she's always been that way." Jari said.

Hunger became a big risk for the town of Walnut Grove a few days later, Jari couldn't help but be horrified when a hailstorm destroyed the wheat crops before they could be harvested.

Mr. Garvey left for work with the rest of men in Walnut Grove and the teen did his part to help by salvaging the loose corn and wheat that afternoon, winter was coming soon meaning time was of the essence.

Constant complaints from Mary had got on his nerves and he finally snapped at the older girl and told her to shut up, all the corn and wheat was soon collected and the risk of hunger was no more.

Money and wanting more of it was the reason Jari came up the idea to paint rocks gold and sell them to others a few weeks later, Nellie's younger brother Willie Oleson had wanted in and the two boys teamed up. Nellie and Willie's mother Harriet Oleson had been none the wiser and they successfully sold one of the rocks to her while holding in their laughter.

Of course the scheming didn't get them rich but there was a good profit made, Mary and Laura confronted him that evening for selling 'fake gold' but he vociferously denied their claims.

Laura missing from Church from Sunday and the rest of the Ingalls attending had concerned him, he learned from Carrie that it was because Laura had a fever and was in bed.

Soup had been prepared by Mrs. Garvey that morning who instructed him to bring it to the Ingalls with well-wishes for Laura to get better, he got a hug from Caroline in thanks along with permission to see Laura.

Only getting to see Laura for a few minutes since the teen wanted to rest, Jari was about to head home when Carrie and Cassandra asked him to stay for dinner. The girls were persistent and once Charles came back with the fish he caught, he along with the Ingalls' went outside to enjoy a bonfire with music playing in the background.

Mary scowled at the sight of him walking into the Little House a few days later for a sleepover, the blond girl had given nothing but contempt and disdain since their first meeting at school.

The sleepover that evening turned out be alot of fun despite Mary's attitude, he roomed with Albert and James and listened as Albert purposely freaked out Carrie and Cassandra with scary stories.

The trio stayed up late talking even after Charles and Caroline came in at different times to make them go to bed, James was the first to fall asleep and then he and Albert followed after making plans for the next sleepover.

Friction between Mary and Laura occurred a few weeks later over the arrival of a new boy at school, the issue was that the boy liked Mary who had no feelings for him whatsoever but Laura liked him. Jari reached out to the new kid but found him dumber than a box of rocks, most of the girls in his class liked the boy for his 'handsome' looks.

Willie had dubbed the new boy a 'scarecrow' and he agreed with Willie's assessment after taking a hard look at the new kid that morning, he would never know what Laura saw in him.

***

Plum Creek

Tired, he took a nap by the creek and the sun had begun to set when James who had the chore of collecting water from it with a bucket discovered him.

"Hey." said James as he knelt next to the older boy and grabbed his shoulder to shake him awake.

Jari shot the younger boy a confused look and he sat up and looked at his surroundings. "James, what are you doing here?"

"Chores Jari, I could ask you the same question."

"I don't know, I must've fallen asleep out here when I was walking home. Are Mary and Laura still fighting over the new kid?"

James shook his head. "No, Ma set them straight and everything's back to normal again." he said.

Though Mary _didn't_ like him at all, Jari was glad to hear that the sisters were getting along again. "That's good, it wasn't worth fighting over that fucking scarecrow anyways, I'm going to head home."

"I've gotta get water from the creek but after that, I'll walk home with you." James offered. Jari could tell that the younger boy was worried about him falling asleep on the way and decided to accept the offer.

Under protest, Jari was sent to the Oleson's Mercantile owned by Harriet and Harriet's husband Nels Oleson a few weeks later to buy dairy and fruit.

Much to his relief since the man was known to be more sensible and polite than his wife and children, Nels was the one working the counter that afternoon and politely rang up his purchases and then sent the teen on his way.

Along with most of the town, he attended a wake but the 'wake' turned out to be a plan for the elderly woman's children to visit with her since apparently she hadn't seen them in so long.

Mary smugly informed Jari a few days later that she and her family had been in on the wake, the blond taunted him for not being trusted enough to know what was going on and he yelled at her to shut up. While picking up mail at the Walnut Grove post office, he ran into Laura and Carrie who tried to apologize on their sister's behalf but he stopped them to say that Mary was responsible for her own behavior.

Despite that he and Mary would probably _never_ be friends, it didn't put him off from spending time at the Ingalls' that evening.

It took some smooth talking and heavy convincing before Charles allowed he, Albert, and Carrie ice cream, sweets _weren't_ too common in the Ingalls household since Caroline didn't want the children rotting their teeth.

Pinky promises not to tell Caroline had to be made before the children were allowed to leave the kitchen.

Saturday night baths were routine as he discovered while sleeping over at the Ingalls' a few weeks later, the teen had planned on going last until Laura informed that it was courtesy for the guest to go first.

Dinner was nearly ready and Jari was sent upstairs to retrieve Albert who had just finished his bath and only wore a towel around his waist, he told the younger boy to hurry up to prevent missing dinner and then left him to get dressed. Dirty looks were shot at him from Mary while he was trying to eat his dinner, the teen almost lost his appetite but still managed to finish his dinner.

Since his mother refused to let him burn the invitation in the fireplace, he was the only boy in school save for Willie for obvious reasons to attend Nellie's birthday party.

Nellie didn't even thank him for the gift and she along with Mary, Laura, and the rest of the girls who attended the party played outside, he noticed one of the girls being left out and Willie told him about the girl being disabled with one leg shorter than the other.

Pity wasn't a good reason to befriend someone but he did attend a party that Mary and Laura had planned to help the girl fit in better a few days later, Laura confided that Mary had been against the idea at first but she had argued her sister into it.

The party went off without a hitch though Nellie left terrified of a 'killer crab' in the creek that afternoon, Jari laughed at the fearful look on Nellie's face when the crab was brought up. After the party, he went home to attend to his chores and then fell asleep shortly following supper.

Seat switching at school the next morning whenever Miss Beadle turned her back had him and the rest of the class holding in laughter, he liked his teacher but thought it would be good if the blond laughed more.

Mary spent the next few weeks berating him for his immature antics which led to many arguments between them, it was obvious that the two didn't mix and were like cats and dogs.

Tripped while handing in his homework that morning, he thought it was Nellie at first but saw the smirk on Mary's face and shot the older girl a death stare before going back to his seat.

If there was one thing Jari was sure of, Mary wasn't going to get away with it. At recess, he didn't feel like playing and sat by himself until a concerned James and Cassandra came over to see what was wrong. James and Cassandra understood why he was upset at Mary's actions but Cassandra advised him to ignore Mary, neither of them wanted to see him get in trouble.

Revenge had to wait a few days until Mary least expected it, he made a mud hole and then rigged a fishing line to trip Mary into falling(on her face) into it.

Mary tried to get him in trouble that afternoon but Charles, Caroline, and his parents didn't believe her since there was no proof, he left the Ingalls' but not before laughing and telling Mary 'nice try' when their parents weren't paying attention.

Though it seemed to physically pain Mary to do so, he managed to call a temporary truce with the older girl since they were forced to be around one another due to Jari's continued assocation with the Ingalls family.

Nellie knew of the rivalry between Mary and Jari and had thought hell had frozen over upon discovering the truce, he only shrugged and told the spoiled blond that the truce was for the sake of the Ingalls family.

One of the many locations for holidays included Mankato, the Ingalls' parents and Jari's parents coincidentally had the same idea and decided to leave together for a few days.

Charles and Caroline had arranged for a close friends of theirs to babysit their children and Jari, it was a relief for his parents not having to find someone to look after him. Of course having no parents didn't mean that the children could go wild, the one babysitting was a strict elderly man who kept things in order.

But that didn't stop a game of Hide and Clap once their babysitter fell asleep, Mary considered the game childish and refused to play but Laura, Carrie, Albert, James, Cassandra, Grace, and Jari sure did.

Carrie was the first seeker and after being blindfolded, it took two claps for her to find an irritated Laura in the kitchen.

***

The Little House

The game continued until everyone had gotten tired and decided to change into their pajamas, luckily the babysitter was still sleeping. Mary and Grace had gone to sleep leaving Laura, Carrie, and Cassandra to meet up with Albert, James, and Jari in the boy's room since they decided to stay up to talk.

"I have to say, Albert got caught more than anybody while we were playing hide and clap." teased Jari as he sat on Albert's bed between the younger boy and Carrie.

Albert mumbled to the older boy with obvious embarrassment on his face. "Shut up."

"Truth hurts, doesn't it Albert?" Cassandra said and then started snickering with Carrie.

"We should tell scary stories." Jari said.

Laura scoffed in disapproval. "Do we have to Jari? You're such an asshat sometimes, Carrie's going to have nightmares and you boys don't have to sleep in a room with her."

Jari looked at his friend and decided to be sarcastic. "You're right Laura, that was a terrible fucking idea." he said.

"Someone just got burned bigtime." Albert said as he high-fived the older boy. Laura glared at her brother and Jari.

"Too bad we're not going to get to play like this when Ma and Pa get back." James reminded.

"That's true, we never would've been able to play hide and clap if Mr. and Mrs. Ingalls were here." Jari said. "Especially with those eyes in the back of their heads."

Carrie nodded in agreement and then a curious look appeared on her face. "Do they really have eyes in the back of their heads?"

"You haven't seen them?" Jari gaped at the younger girl in surprise.

***

Epilogue.

Charles and Caroline returned from Mankato with promises to never take a holiday again, the Ingalls children asked why many times for years but neither parent gave a response nor did Jari's when he asked the same question.

Mary moved to New York once she was of age and is now divorced with one son, she had a big fallout with her parents and Laura before moving and is on Christmas telegram terms with her family.

Laura became best friends with Nellie shortly before the latter got married and left for New York, she tied the knot with Almanzo Wilder and the two are now expecting their first child.

Jari tried to get along with Mary for the sake of Mary's family but gained nothing but contempt and disdain from the blond up until she left Walnut Grove, he remained good friends with the Ingalls family but drifted apart from Laura once she got married. Presently, he's dating a woman he met after graduation and is planning on proposing to her soon.


End file.
